Mark Bernstein of Eastgate Systems on Blogging and the Victorians

We met Mark Bernstein at BlogTalk 2008 . He made quite an impression on the participants with his highly original presentation which traced elements of the Victorian era (a time of profound innovation) in the blogging movement of today. Mark is Chief Scientist with Eastgate Systems, a company which makes tools for hypertext and publishes hypertext fiction and non-fiction. He says that hypertext is the first innovation in "punctuation" we've seen in centuries. He describes blogging "as a form of writing, with immediacy and authenticity, that's trying to communicate directly things that matter to the writer for themselves and perhaps their immediate circle". This is an activity which would be quite familiar to the Victorians. Do the changes wrought by hypertext have an impact on society? Mark believes that blogging has transformed political journalism. He takes issue with the common wisdom that weblogs encourage a herd mentality. There is always that tendency in society, he says, but weblogs encourage dialogue. He says it's not surprising that political movements of the 20th century have left people with a distaste for "big ideas". Blogging represents "the return of reason and a turning away from nostalgia for an imaginary past is, I think, in the spirit of the times, as in fact it was in the latter part of the 19th century."

Intruders TV | June 26, 2008

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